More on Joe DiMaggio and the Marlins

Not sure if how many of you out there remember, but DiMaggio’s number 5 is the only number retired by the Marlins. (Photos after the jump.)
That was done as a tribute to Carl Barger, who became the franchise’s first team president on July 8, 1991. Mr. Barger, whose favorite player was DiMaggio, died of an aneurysm at baseball’s winter meetings in Louisville, Ky., in 1992.

The Marlins retired No. 5 in Barger’s memory on April 5, 1993, the franchise’s first game. No Marlins has ever worn 5.

Before DiMaggio died in 1999, former former Marlin Jeff Conine got to know the Yankee Clipper through volunteer work at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

Al Baccari, who was an altar boy at Joe DiMaggio's wedding to Dorothy Arnold in 1939, stands in front of Sts. Peter and Paul, where the Yankee Clipper was married. (Photo by Joe Capozzi)

I’ve been covering the Marlins for 10 years now and I always wanted to follow DiMaggio’s footsteps on a trip to San Francisco. I was able to do that earlier this week with perhaps the city’s best DiMaggio guide, historian Alessandro Baccari.

Baccari’s family knew the DiMaggio family. Baccari was 11 when he was chosen to be an altar boy at DiMaggio’s first wedding, to actress Dorothy Arnold in 1939.

“He put olive oil over everything he ate,” Baccari says, “and he was a fanatic about something else – his shoes were always shined. I used to always look at his feet.”

In 1937, Joe DiMaggio opened Joe DiMaggio's Grotto, a restaurant at this site that shut down years ago. Today's it's a souvenir shop with a Joe's Crab Shack on top. (Photo by Joe Capozzi)

San Francisco kids who won their division in youth baseball leagues were rewarded with a medal at Joe DiMaggio’s Grotto, a restaurant opened in 1937 on Fisherman’s Wharf.

“It wasn’t just any medal,” Baccari said. “It was Joe DiMaggio giving you the medal. That was a big thing for us: ‘Joe gave me my medal.’ It could have been the governor and it wouldn’t have meant anything.”

It was a big deal when DiMaggio returned after each baseball season. “They came by train. You’d get off in Oakland and take the ferry boat. When he arrived, there was a lot of excitement on the wharf. The mayor would come out for a big reception.”

In the 1970s, Baccari often took his children to Fisherman’s Wharf where they’d often see DiMaggio sit in the corner of a restaurant – dunking his toast in his coffee at breakfast, eating pasta and clams at dinner.

“He liked to golf at the Presidio,” Baccari said. “If you went to his house in the marina, you’d see all these boxes that were never opened – he’d win TV sets in golf tournaments.”

Baccari says this is the Monterrey Clipper boat that DiMaggio's father, Guiseppe, fished out of in the 1920s and 30s. (Photo by Joe Capozzi)

Back in the 1930s, the Yankee Clipper opened Joe DiMaggio’s Grotto on the wharf. It closed down years ago. Today the two story building is called the “Dom DiMaggio Building.” On the first floor are souvenir shops, on the second is a Joe’s Crab Shack.

On the roof of the building is a commercial advertisment sign that’s also subtle reminder of Joltin’ Joe’s ties to the building: “Eat at Joe’s.”

Joe DiMaggio and his 8 brothers and sisters grew up in this flat at 2150 Taylor Street. (Photo by Joe Capozzi)